Kodos found
by Rangerfan58
Summary: title gives it away. profile explains how i choose to rate things and it's a one shot this time


_What you recognize I don't own. Kirk was on Tarsus IV but only because of the fact that he had been part of an exchange student project with the permission of Winona, since we don't know a whole lot about her I am assuming she was a good, but somewhat busy mom who had to be out in space for her job on a semi-regular basis for one to three years at a time with a near equal amount of time on Earth except in emergency cases, the car incident was due to a combination of an uncle who unfortunately was a bit neglectful of Jim in that while the abuse was never physical or verbal he also left Kirk alone for way too long and one of the uncle's friends who wasn't the nicest person. Kirk's criminal youth started after he returned from Tarsus and his mom being unable to leave in order to make money to survive though she did do her best to curb his actions it wasn't always successful_

James T. Kirk, Captain of the _Enterprise _was reading through reports when suddenly he stiffened but only Spock had taken notice

"Captain?"

"We're heading back to Earth everyone, effective immediately"

"New orders sir?"

"Not exactly, but I want us as close as possible when that order is given for reasons that I can't currently get into"

"Understood sir"

An hour later and Uhura mentioned being hailed

"On screen"

They see Admiral Pike on the viewscreen and he had a serious expression on his face

"Kirk, where are you?"

"Heading back to Earth now sir"

"I see, I just got that report that I am assuming you already read, I was hoping to get it first per certain agreements that you're already aware of"

"I know sir, but you have other ships to take care of as well, not to mention the fact that I know for certain you had that meeting with mom and her colleagues and those meetings can take _hours_ depending on what needs discussed"

"Yes, that's indeed what kept me from getting the report first, I need to know Kirk, do you have contact?"

"Yes sir I do, think it will be taken better from me?"

"You tell me, you know reactions better than I do"

(Sighs) "I'll tell most, but you have Riley"

"Oh?"

"He might be needed and he'll need official orders from an Admiral to be relieved of classes for an undetermined amount of time"

"When did he join and why wasn't I aware of it?"

"This year and I have no idea why except for the sealed records thing"

"Understood, and Kirk...I wish our suspicions had been right all those years ago"

"I know, so do I, I know you guys did your best to make sure he was just that good at hiding"

"Indeed, by the way any of your kids dead?"

"No all are alive, spread out across the galaxy it seems, but alive"

"How spread out are they really?"

"Earth, moon, Mars, and Betazed respectively"

"Numbers?"

"One of Betazed, one on Mars, two on the moon and the other four on Earth, one like I said at the Academy"

"I'm surprised that none of them are on Deneva considering the offer"

"Sam was too but understood the need to not be watched over by a Kirk who can be overprotective"

"Wait...don't tell me"

"No he wasn't there, but he did see the aftermath, actually dealt with me for eight months of getting used to normal food again"

"Since when were you on Deneva?"

"He came home after he heard about it, boss was very understanding actually, if I recall correctly Sam said that his boss was willing to kill Kodos immediately if he ever showed up on Deneva no trial or anything, then again since he'd already _been_ tried in absence it would have been perfectly legal"

"Not if he wasn't in charge of the government"

"Close enough seeing as how Sam's boss was Acting Governor at the time with the actual Governor incapacitated for a few months, but the Governor named Sam's boss as his temporary successor for reasons unknown to either of them, Kodos basically had a shoot on sight order on Deneva, the only exception would have been if he was surrendering himself for punishment, if that had been the case Kodos would have been taken to court where it would be explained to him what the Federation Courts had already decided, I'm guessing that either Kodos contested that decision or the Federation simply wants us to have closure"

"Contested the Courts decision, says he was only doing what was best for the people and that the people he killed shouldn't be considered murder or genocide"

"Right, you get to Riley, I have explanations to do with my crew"

"Yes, you do, how close are you to Betazed anyways?"

"The _Renegade _is the closest, tell them to contact Thomas Leighton"

"Leighton, got it, why's he on Betazed anyways?"

"Something about seeing if a plant there was truly resistant to certain diseases or not"

"Got it"

"See you on Earth"

"Do the others need special arrangements for transport?"

"No, the others have transportation already figured out both on Earth and the moon and Mars"

"Understood"

The screen cuts out and then Kirk knows that he has some explaining to do

"Right then, Uhura there's going to be some calls you're going to make but first some explanation, yes the Kodos we mentioned is ex-governor Kodos of Tarsus IV, the leader of the massacre after the crops failed, and yes I was there when that happened. I was supposed to only be there for a year as a student exchange member, having gone there during the summer to get used to my host family, crops failed just as the school year started and Kodos didn't alert the Federation like he was supposed to, he was later suspected as the one to create the blight in the first place but we don't yet know the truth. Anyways as you also know there are nine survivors who can identify Kodos definitively and I'm one of them, I also protected the other eight as the oldest of them from the time we escaped the massacre to the time we were rescued by Starfleet almost ten months later, it might have been longer if not for an idea I got that almost killed me, but it ended the jamming that Kodos had up that allowed a message about what was happening to be sent out, as for Kodos I know for a fact that history says he died on Tarsus but Starfleet didn't initially believe that and searched for two long years before ending it stating that Kodos was indeed dead, obviously they were wrong but I don't blame them since they _did_ look, longer than they were supposed to actually seeing as they extended the search by a year and a half"

"Whoa"

"Yeah, whoa, now then Uhura Tommy's first since the _Renegade _is about two days out and they'll have been contacted by now, though I'm also sure that Admiral Pike said not to make contact until they're a few hours away to give me time to explain things to you guys and call my kids"

"Right"

Ten minutes later and Thomas Leighton was on screen

"Thomas Leighton here how can I...JT, what's up?"

"He's been found Tommy, the trial is on Earth and as one of the nine..."

"I see, you picking me up?"

"No the _Renegade_ will be, they'll call you a few hours out"

"Understood, I'll be waiting for them, though I wish..."

"Yeah, Admiral Pike also wished that the Federation's assumption had been correct"

"You letting the others know as well?"

"All except Kevin due to him being in the Academy"

"Who's telling Kevin then?"

"Admiral Pike"

"Orders"

"Yep, orders"

"I'll be ready for them"

"Good, I have others to contact now"

"I know"

The screen turns black once more and Uhura is looking at Kirk expectantly

"Right, we have one person on Mars, two people on the moon and three people on Earth left to contact since Admiral Pike has the one person who's a Cadet"

"So who next?"

"Mars, then the moon and then finally Earth, Uhura I already gave you the contact numbers"

"Yes sir, just a moment"

And so the next six conversations are similar to the one Kirk had with Leighton with only a few minor changes besides names

"Right then, how long until we're back on Earth?"

"Another day and a half sir if we keep to our speed, if we increase to maximum warp we'll be at Earth in twelve hours"

"Do it then"

"Sir, I know you said Keven Riley would be taken care of by Admiral Pike but don't you think you should talk to him as well if only to reassure him that everything will be alright?"

(Sighs) "I'm afraid it's a bit complicated Uhura I may have been in contact with all of my kids over the years but Kevin...Kevin was the youngest of the nine of us and when he joined the Academy he asked for the chance to stand on his own two feet which included when receiving bad new, if he calls us then yes put him through immediately but I have to trust him enough to know that he needs to talk to one of us"

"How young was he?"

"He was seven, almost eight at the time the massacre happened, by the time everything was over he was eight and a half"

"How old was the oldest?"

"I was the oldest at fifteen, Tommy was the same age as I was but three months younger, between that and the fact that I was the one shooting the guards meant I was automatically put in charge of the entire group with Tommy as my second, the rest in descending order were thirteen, twelve and ten with the ten year olds being twins, the rest were simply born at different times during their year"

"Wait, how did you heal enough from such trauma in just under three years?"

"Who said I was completely healed?, there's a reason I was in so much trouble before joining Starfleet, and also why I logged so many hours in the training rooms and Bones can tell you how many bars I visited too, almost got into a few bar fights too now that I think about it, but I was offered counseling and I did take Starfleet up on their offer, unfortunately they couldn't do much about my deep seated anger at a lot of things regarding my life, but they gave me a good start on coping with Tarsus and the other stuff, they just..."

"They just could not heal that much damage in such a short amount of time correct Captain?"

"Correct Spock, but they helped give me a means of getting through flashbacks and really bad nights where I was too scared to sleep, thinking I was back on Tarsus and sleep potentially meant being captured or killed"

"Yeah and I had to deal with those nights if they came too frequently, should have guessed when they were the worst during the week of remembrance"

"Yeah Bones, you should have, still I was glad to know you when things got so bad I needed sedation just to get some sleep"

"For now though we're simply heading for Earth and if we get a call from the Academy put it through so that you can talk to the last of your kids"

"Exactly Uhura"

"So the others didn't deliberately cut off contact like Riley did?"

"Like I said, Kevin is a bit of a complicated situation, it's not so much as cutting off contact as much as it is that he wants to see how far he can go standing on his own before calling in family to help him with his demons"

"So there's a chance he could call someone not you"

"Except he also knows, just like the rest of my kids that if it's Kodos they're to call me first and if that's not possible then and _only_ then are they to call someone else and hope they can hold on long enough for someone to arrive, Tommy's the most problematic at the moment but he also got the counseling he needed, all of us did really"

"Understood"

The rest of the journey to Earth was mostly silent, Kevin did ultimately call two hours before they arrived back on Earth. A week later was the trial of Kodos and all nine of the group identified Kodos which sealed his fate and he was executed two days later with the group as witnesses

"So what now JT?"

"Now we finally, truly move on from this, yes we're scarred from our experience and will still have our bad nights, but knowing that Kodos is truly dead this time should hopefully help decrease the frequency of those bad nights"

"Okay then, by the way if I earn it can I get on your ship once I graduate?"

"Sure Kevin, now then everyone keep in touch like I know you're already doing, but the frequency needs to be upped for a little bit, you're the worst of the lot Tommy and you know it"

"Fine I'll make more frequent calls, still like you said knowing for sure that Kodos is dead will surely help in the long run"

With that the group separated, but they all also knew that they were never truly alone. Over the years there were calls to help deal with the trauma, sometimes a get together was spontaneous due to being in the same vicinity and then there was the incident that was so similar to Tarsus, yet different in that there hadn't been a coup or a massacre to supposedly save those worthy of living, that all of them volunteered to help the victims and payed for it with _major_ flashbacks and the need to huddle and sleep together on the way back to Earth, but overall they had healed tremendously with the death of Kodos, and when Kirk died the group banded together once more and would ultimately live together until the end, with Tommy as the next oldest automatically taking lead even if all of them were grown adults with careers by that time seeing as how Kirk had died only ten years after the end of Kodos, and if anyone ever questioned such an arrangement they would either say one of three words, they would either say Kodos or Tarsus IV and that would back anyone off because everyone knew that anyone who survived Tarsus IV, but particularly nine kids at the time were close to one another


End file.
